Batumi City Hall May Have Seized a Flat from Lonely Blind Mother

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

Blind Gulnaz Mamuladze has been renting a flat for several years even though she was assigned a free flat. She did not enter the free flat because of promises made to her. Now she wants to live in the free flat but it seems that it has been assigned to someone else or maybe that it never existed at all.. Her husband Genadi Shavishvili died last year; her son, 12-year-old Tsotne, has been living for the past 7 years in the Batumi Orphanage for Children Without Parents or Lacking Parental Care.. “Of course I want him to be with me but how can I keep him?” said Mamuladze who is living on her allowance as a disabled person.

Gulnaz Mamuladze is renting a one-room flat in Mayakovski Street N 80 in Batumi. With the support of her neighbors she often visits various governmental agencies and urges them for help but the officials tell her “you are speculating with your blindness.”

Mamuladze said: “In 1984 the state assigned to me as a blind person one-room flat N 37 in the former dormitory of the Citrus Factory, in Shavsheti Street N 29, Batumi. This address is written in my ID as well. According to the request of the City Mayor I did not enter that flat because they promised me to give alternative accommodation. However, they did not keep their promise and I still rent a different flat.”

According to the notification issued by the Batumi Service Center of the Public Registry within the Ministry of Justice, dated December 30, 2008, Gulnaz Mamuladze is registered at Shavsheti Street N 29, App. N 37, Batumi. The Human Rights Center applied to the Batumi Service Center of the Public Registry and requested information on how Mamuladze was registered at the indicated address on Shavsheti Street. The reply was that Gulnaz Mamuladze had not applied to their service center and they did not have any documents on her.

Gulnaz Mamuladze applied to the State project “What Is Yours, It Is Yours” about the fact that she was refused to have the flat registered. The flat in the abovementioned address in Batumi is the residential place owned by the State Accommodation Fund and based on the president’s resolution N 73, dated by January 29, 2007 on “Assigning the non-privatized residential space or non-residential space to the executive agency of the local authority” it can be assigned to legal users for free. In this case, according to the Property Management Service Department at the Batumi City Hall, a family of Gorgoshadzes was registered as a legal user of the flat instead of Gulnaz Mamuladze.

The Human Rights Center met the Gorgoshadzes. They stated they own the flat N 35. “We have documents. My mother-in-law worked at the Citrus Factory and the flat was assigned to her. I do not know who lives in the flat N 37. We of course are going to register our flat N 35.”

Gulnaz Mamuladze requests other people, registered in the flat N37 in Shavsheti Street 29 to legalize the flat in her name. Mamuladze said:  “I am a lonely, blind and homeless person. Everybody laughed at me and they offer to assign one room in the Peria Asylum for me and my son. Everybody refuses to help me…is there no place for me and my son in Adjara? I demand that my rights be protected. I demand all fraud documents to be annulled.” She has appealed to Batumi District Prosecutor’s Office.

Unreal Flat and Two Owners of that Flat

Representatives of the Human Rights Center visited Shavsheti Street N 29. The dormitory was built for the workers of the factory. However, none of the former workers live there now. At least nobody could say who of former workers lived there. The flats were purchased by other people about 10-15 years ago. We could not find the flat N 37 on the second floor and neither could neighbors could show it to us.

The documentation at the Batumi Service Center of Public Registry is very interesting.

According to the notification N 22/02-613 of the Batumi Service Center of the Public Registry issued on January 30, 2008 the flat is registered at the Batumi City Hall. According to the Property Management Service Department of the Batumi City Hall, based on the registration letter the legal owners of the flat are: Nazi Gorgoshadze, Enver Gorgoshadze, Ruslan Gorgoshadze, Zurab Gorgoshadze and Nunuka Ashlagba.

According to the notification of the Public Registry issued on March 18, 2009 the flat N 37 in Shavsheti Street N 29 is registered on Malkhaz Surmanidze.

Surmanidze bought this flat by the purchase agreement from Ilia Beridze (region of Kedi, villige of Kokotauri) on May 24, 1995 and paid 3 millions of Kuponis.

If this property was registered on the books of The City Hall, how could the Service Center of Public Registry have managed to provide Malkhaz Surmanidze with the flat under the purchase agreement signed in 1995. Moreover, it is known that Surmanidze applied for the Service Center of Public Registry in December 28, 2007 with a notification to have his flat registered.

According to the notification, the flat # 37 of the hostel in Shavsheti # 29, there are two owners of the flat: the family of Gorgoshadzes considered as an owner of the flat by Batumi City Hall and Malkhaz Surmanidze. However, according to the information card of the Batumi Service Center of Public Registry of the Ministry of Justice, the above-mentioned address is registered on Gulnaz Mamuladze.

The Human Rights Center tried to contact  Malkhaz Surmanidze, but according to his neighbors, instead of Malkhaz Surmanidze Otar Sumanidze lives in the flat, (Tabidze Street # 23, flat # 19, Batumi) however, the address is registered on Malkhaz Surmanidze according to his personal information.